The present invention relates to a suspension support member for a vehicle, and particularly, to a suspension support member mounted on a vehicle body to support a coil spring and a shock absorber forming a suspension.
There is a conventionally known sport car having a vehicle body which is formed in a monocoque construction by welding and assembling panels made of an Al alloy together. In this case, coil springs and shock absorbers for left and right rear wheels are disposed concentrically and supported at their upper ends on cylindrical portions of left and right rear frame panel sets forming a portion of the vehicle body.
However, each of the rear frame panel sets suffers from the following problem. The rear frame panel set is formed by assembling various pressed parts made of an Al alloy by welding. Hence, the accumulation of dimensional errors of the pressed parts, a thermal strain due to the welding and the like are liable to occur. For this reason, a very large number of steps are required for ensuring a positional accuracy for the cylindrical portions.
An annular upper end wall and its vicinity of each of the cylindrical portions receiving a suspension input are formed by superposition of plates, in order to enhance the rigidity thereof. However, the plate-superposed structure is liable to become a source of generation of noises due to the vibration of the individual plate.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a suspension support member of the above-described type for a vehicle, wherein the supported positions of a coil spring and a shock absorber forming a suspension can be determined simply with a good accuracy, and the support member has a high rigidity and moreover, the generation of noises can be inhibited remarkably.
To achieve the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided a suspension support member for a vehicle, mounted on a vehicle body to support a coil spring and a shock absorber forming a suspension, wherein the suspension support member is formed of a cast article including a spring seat for the coil spring and a pivot support section for the shock absorber, the spring seat and the pivot support section being disposed independently from each other.
With the above arrangement, the suspension support member is formed of the cast article and hence, the positions of the spring seat for the coil spring and the pivot support section for the shock absorber in the member are not moved. Therefore, if the suspension support member is disposed in a predetermined position on the vehicle body, the supported positions of the coil spring and the shock absorber can be determined simply with a good accuracy. In addition, the suspension support member made by casting has a high rigidity and moreover, has a vibration-damping property, whereby the generation of noises can be inhibited remarkably. Further, since the spring seat and the pivot support section are disposed independently from each other, the dispersion of a suspension input is provided. This is effective for ensuring the rigidity of the suspension support member and for enhancing the durability of the suspension support member.